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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29790522">Love Letter Mystery: An Author Among Us</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/verivery_rtf/pseuds/verivery_rtf'>verivery_rtf</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>VERIVERY (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, Mystery</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 03:22:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,299</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29790522</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/verivery_rtf/pseuds/verivery_rtf</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Yeonho wakes up to find a love letter on his pillow. When he addresses it to the group, no one comes forward to claim it. It reads:</p><p>  <i>I can't stop thinking about you. I've known for a while that my feelings for you were like this, but... I've never wanted to kiss you more than I did yesterday. It's becoming somewhat unbearable for me to hide my feelings, so I have to let you know.</i></p><p>What sort of person would write this to him? Who had access to his room during the night? What happened yesterday to inspire that person to confess? FIND OUT ON: Love Letter Mystery: An Author Among Us.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Letter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/smouldering">smouldering</a> for helping me edit.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yeonho finds himself starting to wake up as he hears Hoyoung move around in the bunk above him. He squeezes his eyes shut at the morning sunlight that's coming through the window of their small room and rolls onto his side, hoping to get a little more sleep. When his head hits the pillow again, he feels an unexpected texture brush against his cheek. He opens his eyes, not knowing what he is looking at. “Hyung, you drop something?” He yawns, sitting up to get a better look.</p>
<p>“Drop what?” Hoyoung asks as he climbs down the ladder from his top bunk.</p>
<p>“An envelope, apparently.”</p>
<p>“Not mine.” Hoyoung heads out the door, on his way to wake Dongheon presumably, as he does every morning.</p>
<p>Yeonho's tired hands fumble with the envelope and struggle to open the flap that has been tightly sealed shut. Inside, a white paper folded into three parts sits comfortably. Removing the paper from the envelope and slowly unfolding it, the confusion starts to set in as he wonders how a single typewritten letter appeared on his pillow. He rubs his eyes before reading:</p>
<p>
  <em> I can't stop thinking about you. I've known for a while that my feelings for you were like this, but... I've never wanted to kiss you more than I did yesterday. It's becoming somewhat unbearable for me to hide my feelings, so I have to let you know. </em>
</p>
<p>Yeonho's first thought is that this is quite a weird, specific fan letter. Then it occurs to him that this... is a love letter. Yeonho looks over to the door of their room that Hoyoung left slightly ajar.  When he went to sleep last night, there wasn't a letter. When he woke up this morning, there was one. No one else was in their home last night. Only the six other members of VERIVERY could have put the letter on his pillow. As soon as the idea that one of his housemates seriously wrote this letter for him enters his mind, Yeonho chokes on his spit and starts coughing.</p>
<p>Hoyoung returns, appearing in the doorway. “Dying?”</p>
<p>“You put this here!” Yeonho gestures wildly between coughs, waving the letter around.</p>
<p>“No? What is it?” Hoyoung hesitates at the doorway, watching Yeonho spiral.</p>
<p>“You know! You were the only one in the room with me last night!” Yeonho straightens out the paper and holds it up for Hoyoung to read. Yeonho watches as Hoyoung squints his eyes and leans forward. His eyes dart left to right on the page a few times, his face expressing more and more shock as he reaches the end. “This was on my pillow. You wrote this.”</p>
<p>“It wasn't me!” Hoyoung takes a step back.</p>
<p>“Then why is your face turning red? Who else could it have been?”</p>
<p>“I don't know, ask around instead of accusing the first person you see!”</p>
<p>As Hoyoung starts to hurry out of the room again, Yeonho shouts at him, “Where are you going? You're acting completely suspicious right now!” But Hoyoung was gone before he could relieve any of his confusion. Not knowing where this letter came from leaves an unsettling feeling in the pit of Yeonho's stomach. Could one of the other members secretly be in love with him? Yeonho quickly decides he has to know. The investigation begins.</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<p>“Who wrote this?” Yeonho addresses the household, who have all mostly just woken up.</p>
<p>“What is it?” Kangmin asks.</p>
<p>Yeonho holds out the envelope with the letter tucked back inside it for the group to see. “One of you left this letter on my pillow last night. It's not funny.”</p>
<p>“What, did you get hate mail or something?” Gyehyeon raises his eyebrows. “That's pretty funny.”</p>
<p>“No, it's the opposite.” Yeonho clarifies, “Someone left a sort of love letter. Who did it?”</p>
<p>The group, visibly surprised, waits for someone amongst them to speak out, but no one does.</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<p>“I mean, it can't just be a prank. Why wouldn't they take that opportunity to own up to it? I can't imagine this being that funny for much longer—if it was even funny in the first place.” Yeonho leans back in his chair, frustrated.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I'm thinking it must be genuine. My guess is they must've been too embarrassed to come forward in front of everyone.” Minchan taps his fingers on his laptop, in thought. He keeps his voice low so as to not alert the others as they went about the rest of their day, “It honestly could be anybody. That letter you showed me was vague enough... Not to mention they all had access to your room at one point in the night.”</p>
<p>Yeonho, who is sitting across from Minchan, nods in agreement. He supposes everyone had the same opportunity to sneak into his room once he and Hoyoung were both asleep last night. And the fact that the letter is so vague also gives him no leads, which makes him feel a bit hopeless.</p>
<p>“Nevertheless, we can narrow this down.” Minchan rests his arms on the table and leans forward towards Yeonho. With a smirk, he lists his suspects, “Number one: the most obvious. Hoyoung is your roommate, and as such sleeps with you each night. With such easy access, it wouldn't be hard to silently leave something on your pillow and then climb back up into bed without waking you. However,” Minchan leans back and crosses his arms, gesturing with his head to Dongheon's room. “Number two: Dongheon's door has also been ajar all night.”</p>
<p>“Okay?”</p>
<p>“We know that Dongheon always shuts his door before going to bed so that we don't accidentally wake him up. That's the luxury of having a room to yourself. So... why did he leave it open last night? Maybe to make sure the coast was clear before he came out? Maybe to avoid making a sound as he sneaks back in?”</p>
<p>“How would you know his door was open all night? Were you up late?” After Minchan stops for a moment too long to think, Yeonho narrows his eyes at him. “<em>You</em>.”</p>
<p>“No,” Minchan defends himself, “when I went to bed, Dongheon was already in his room, asleep, and when I woke up his door was still ajar and he was still asleep. It's unlikely that he'd close it and open it again during the night.”</p>
<p>“Maybe Hoyoung left it open when he went to check on him this morning.”</p>
<p>“I was awake before Hoyoung went in his room and it was already open.”</p>
<p>“Maybe he just forgot to shut it.”</p>
<p>“Maybe.” Minchan looks away from Yeonho, seemingly in thought.</p>
<p>In this moment, Yeonho considers the pause Minchan took when he asked him how he knew Dongheon's door had been open late at night. “You're awfully accusing of Dongheon.”</p>
<p>“I'm not, everyone is suspicious. I'm just saying it could've been him.”</p>
<p>“Why were you up late last night and why are you lying about it?”</p>
<p>Minchan presses his lips together and looks down, wearing a guilty expression.</p>
<p>Yeonho follows Minchan's gaze to his laptop for a moment before he realizes. “You were editing the DIY...” All the members agreed Minchan has been too hard on himself and is spending too much time on the DIY MV. Of course, they all wanted it to come out well, but not at Minchan's expense. It appears that he was working on it instead of resting, costing him precious hours of sleep once again. “Cut that out. Seriously.”</p>
<p>“I wasn't up <em> that </em> late... But I <em> was </em> the last one up.”</p>
<p>“So it could've been you,” Yeonho says jokingly, more concerned for his hyung in the moment, rather than about who wrote this letter.</p>
<p>“It could've been me,” Minchan returns the joke with a smile. “Not to complicate things, but the members of my room are suspects as well. Were you woken up by any loud sounds last night?”</p>
<p>“No?”</p>
<p>“During the night I heard the door of our room shut and someone came in.”</p>
<p>“Who was it?”</p>
<p>“I was half asleep. I didn't bother looking. I was wiped out from editing...” Minchan looks guilty again briefly. “I fell asleep nearly immediately afterwards. Maybe the other light sleepers woke up from it as well and saw something.”</p>
<p>“Hoyoung's a light sleeper, I'll ask him about it.” Yeonho shook his head, “I think it's more likely that he left the letter though. He was acting very strange earlier.”</p>
<p>“How so?”</p>
<p>“After I showed him the letter he was blushing and looked uncomfortable and left as fast as possible.”</p>
<p>“He hates cringey things. You know this.” Minchan's eyes shift down to his laptop, ready to continue editing. “And that letter is pretty cringe.”</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<p>Yesterday, Hoyoung and Yeonho were having fun joking around. Hoyoung was planning a prank on Dongheon, and Yeonho was his accomplice. They shared many laughs, but nothing that he can remember from that day jumps out at him as something that could have prompted a love letter. If Hoyoung wrote the letter, what specifically happened during their shenanigans to make him want to kiss—? Yeonho shakes his head. He hates thinking about this. It's incredibly embarrassing to have to imagine the possibility that another member is in love with him. Yeonho sighs as Kangmin makes his way over to him.</p>
<p>“What's wrong?”</p>
<p>Ignoring his question, Yeonho asks, “Kangmin-a, who's your favorite hyung?”</p>
<p>“Gyehyeon.”</p>
<p>“So it's not me at all, right?”</p>
<p>“It's not like that! Of course I like you and the others equally, but I just like Gyehyeon a little more!”</p>
<p>“That's fine, I'm not jealous or anything. I'm just making sure you're not the one who wrote that letter. Right?”</p>
<p>“Right.” Kangmin nods.</p>
<p>There is a moment of silence where Yeonho acknowledges that what he asked was useless. He can't just outright ask if Kangmin wrote the letter and believe his response, because the author of the letter clearly doesn't want to come forward and admit to writing it. “Kangmin-a, how long were you up last night?”</p>
<p>“I went to bed early, before the others,” he answers too quickly for Yeonho's liking, as if rehearsed.</p>
<p>“So you know nothing about the letter? You didn't see or hear anything?”</p>
<p>“No, I don't know anything.”</p>
<p>“Did you wake up to any loud noise? What time did you go to bed anyways?”</p>
<p>“I didn't hear anything. And I don't know, 10?”</p>
<p>“Isn't that really early? Why on Earth would you go to bed at 10? That's awfully sus, Kangmin-a,” Yeonho raises an eyebrow at the other boy.</p>
<p>“I'm not sus, what about Minchan? He was the one up the latest, it was probably him! I did <em> not </em> write that letter!” He turns away from Yeonho and exits the living room.</p>
<p>That last bit of information doesn't sit right with Yeonho. How did Kangmin know Minchan was the last one to go to bed if he was asleep before everyone else? <em> '... I've never wanted to kiss you more than I did yesterday.' </em> Remembering this line from the letter, Yeonho tries to recall anything of significance from the day before. He used Kangmin as a piece of furniture, that much he can remember. He was leaning on him, pretending to bite him, trying to get a reaction out of the younger. It's true that Kangmin loves attention from the other members, but could he have been hiding special feelings for Yeonho all this time? Did Yeonho accidentally spoil him with attention yesterday, causing him to finally write that confession letter—?</p>
<p>These thoughts are interrupted as Yongseung waves his hand in front of Yeonho's eyes. “Is everything okay?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just thinking.” Yeonho feels more at ease as his trusted friend sits down beside him on the couch. “I just can't figure out who wrote the letter.”</p>
<p>Yongseung presses his lips together and thinks for a moment. The sight of his best friend genuinely trying to help him makes Yeonho feel like the problem has already been solved.</p>
<p>“Maybe whoever wrote it just isn't ready to face you yet.”</p>
<p>This response from Yongseung disappoints Yeonho, but he admits he has a good point. Clearly, the letter was given to him too early and now whoever left it on his pillow regrets it. On the other hand, that response is exactly what the author of the letter would say. Yeonho smiles, thinking it would be okay if Yongseung turns out to be the author in the end... until Yeonho realizes that Yongseung had just made a pun and frowns. “'Isn't ready to...'“</p>
<p>“<em>Face you</em>.” Yongseung smiles, proud of himself.</p>
<p>Despite the bad pun, the bright look on Yongseung's face put a wide, toothy grin back on Yeonho's own face. “Yongseung, be real with me. Did you write that letter?”</p>
<p>“No...” Yongseung pauses, which gives enough time for the unexpected disappointment that Yeonho feels with his answer to sink in. “But I did see something.”</p>
<p>“Really? What?”</p>
<p>“I woke up during the night and when I looked over, I noticed Gyehyeon wasn't in his bunk.”</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<p>“I'm telling you I didn't write that horrible letter,” Hoyoung defends himself for the second time today. “If I had to write something that cringey, I'd die on the spot before it ever reached its destination.”</p>
<p>“Is it really that bad?” Dongheon turns to Yeonho, who is seated next to him in the kitchen.</p>
<p>“I mean... It's better if you don't see it.” Yeonho shakes his head. “Hoyoung's writing is terrible.”</p>
<p>“Wha— I didn't write it!” Hoyoung throws his soapy hands up in frustration, wet from washing dishes directly after everyone ate dinner together.</p>
<p>“I'd believe Hoyoung if he tells you he didn't do it,” Dongheon advises Yeonho. “It’s impossible for him to lie with a straight face. He has zero acting talent!”</p>
<p>“<em>Thank you</em>.” Hoyoung adds, “But I still want you to help me with these.”</p>
<p>Dongheon clicks his tongue, but gets up to dry the dishes that Hoyoung washes. “OK, let's get it,” he says in English.</p>
<p>As those two become quiet while they clean up the dishes from the group’s recent meal, Yeonho can't help but realize that the day is nearly over and he still hasn't come anywhere close to solving this mystery. Hoping to get some sort of insight from their leader, Yeonho starts, “Dongheon hyung, can I get some advice about all this?”</p>
<p>“I don’t think he’s qualified,” Hoyoung laughs.</p>
<p>Hearing the insult, Dongheon playfully pushes Hoyoung away as he continues chuckling.</p>
<p>“What should I do? I can’t just let this go and <em> wait </em> for someone to come forward—if that ever even happens! Who would've done this? Do you know?” Yeonho asks their leader.</p>
<p>“It was probably Dongheon,” Hoyoung interjects. “He's definitely capable of writing cringe to that extent.” He stares at Dongheon to watch that burn hit.</p>
<p>Dongheon rolls his eyes while avoiding Hoyoung's and sighs. “I don't know who did it, Yeonho-ya... Where did you say you found the letter?”</p>
<p>“Right on the edge of my pillow.” Yeonho remembers the question that he had for Dongheon after his interaction with Minchan. “Why was your door open, by the way?”</p>
<p>“My door? Was it open last night?”</p>
<p>“Yeah?”</p>
<p>Dongheon takes a moment to dry a dish before speaking, “I can't remember leaving it open.”</p>
<p>“You usually go to bed first and you always shut your door to block out any noise and lights from the others. How come it was open? Were you up late? Why'd you never close it?”</p>
<p>Dongheon silently dries another dish for a moment. “I guess I fell asleep before I noticed it was still open. Must've been tired.”</p>
<p>Unsatisfied with Dongheon's suspicious pauses before answering his question, Yeonho exclaims, “You're hiding something too!” He groans loudly, surprising even himself with how frustrated he is with the situation. “Seriously, why did everyone have to be up to something last night except for Yongseung?”</p>
<p>“Did you want it to be Yongseung who wrote you the letter?” Hoyoung  looks over at Yeonho, smiling cheekily.</p>
<p>“No!”</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<p>It's possible that Dongheon wrote the letter, Yeonho considers. He's known to be quite the lyricist, and songwriting can definitely involve the same skills as writing love letters. Both love letters and song lyrics alike can contain those sorts of tender thoughts and feelings. As for Dongheon’s motivation, Yeonho only tries to forget how he and Dongheon had their arms wrapped around each other yesterday as they were dramatically singing love songs together. Reminded of a similar experience from yesterday, he also tries not to think about the duet that he and Minchan had, where they shared a love song together in a more serious manner. It’s starting to seem like he had some kind of romantic moment with every individual member yesterday. Yeonho curses himself for being so lovable and giving everyone motivations to fall in love with him and want to kiss him so bad.</p>
<p>Back in the living room, Yeonho sits with his soulmate and his soulmate's biggest fan. The show playing on the television doesn't interest Yeonho. He honestly just wants his love letter mystery to be solved already.</p>
<p>He turns to the member next to him. “Gyehyeon, give it to me straight.”</p>
<p>Gyehyeon raises an eyebrow at Yeonho, barely shifting his attention from the television to him.</p>
<p>“Why were you not in bed last night?”</p>
<p>“Uh, I was in bed though?”</p>
<p>“Yongseung said you weren't when he woke up in the middle of the night.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, it's called getting up to go to the bathroom.”</p>
<p>Yeonho is unable to really argue further so he decides to be satisfied with that answer. He shifts his attention to the show and reaches for the popcorn located in the bowl on the youngest member's lap.</p>
<p>“But,” Gyehyeon adds after moments pass, “the door to our room was already left wide open when I got up.” Eyes on the screen while eating popcorn, he continues, “I didn’t bother closing it, but it was shut when I woke up this morning. Minchan said he woke up in the middle of the night because someone loudly shut it. Someone did it. Wasn't me.”</p>
<p>Yeonho stops to think. Allegedly, if everyone was telling the truth, Minchan, Gyehyeon, Yongseung, and Kangmin, all residents of that room, were not the ones to shut their door and cause the loud sound that ended up waking a couple of members. Then Yeonho remembers how suspicious Kangmin was earlier, how he knew Minchan was the last one awake when a truly unconscious person would've been none the wiser. With renewed suspicion, Yeonho looks over at Kangmin.</p>
<p>Kangmin is visibly engrossed in the episode, his eyes locked on the screen while he rhythmically eats popcorn. He points to the television and says, “I <em> love </em> this next part.”</p>
<p>Gyehyeon freezes, which causes Yeonho to look at him quizzically. “What do you mean you 'love this next part'?” </p>
<p>“It's done so well, watch or you'll miss it.”</p>
<p>Gyehyeon eyes Kangmin. “This episode is brand new.”</p>
<p>From the way Kangmin slows down his consumption of popcorn, Yeonho can tell Kangmin is becoming nervous. “It... premiered yesterday.”</p>
<p>“Okay, technically it premiered yesterday, but we both missed it to go to dinner with the others.”</p>
<p>Yeonho had forgotten about dinner yesterday. He had forgotten how he and Gyehyeon had jokingly fed each other as romantically as possible, and when Yeonho started going overboard with the act, Gyehyeon pushed him away and refused to play any more. Could he have become shy because of his feelings for the other? Was that occurrence enough to have prompted writing a love letter to him? Unsure and currently more concerned with Kangmin's level of suspiciousness, Yeonho brings his attention back to what Gyehyeon is saying.</p>
<p>“There's no way you saw this episode when it premiered. The only other time it was aired again was last night. At 4 am.” Gyehyeon accusingly stares at Kangmin. “You were up past your bedtime, weren't you?”</p>
<p>The look on the youngest's face tells Yeonho that that's exactly the case. “I shouldn't even have a bedtime! ... Okay, fine!” Kangmin turns to the other two, setting aside the popcorn bowl. “I'm sick of you guys nagging me, but I literally couldn't wait to see this episode when it came out!” He starts to pout, becoming frustrated. “I thought I was really sneaky. I even waited for Minchan to go to bed and fall asleep. Took him forever and I nearly missed the beginning because of him...”</p>
<p>“Did you think you were effectively utilizing your sneaking power when you slammed the door coming back into our room?”</p>
<p>“It was an accident, the doors shut really loudly here and I forgot to be careful because I was so hyped after watching this! Look, you're missing one of my favorite parts right now!”</p>
<p>Yeonho frowns at another alibi being cleared. But just as fast as that thought crossed his mind, he realizes that just because a member was up to something else last night, that doesn't mean they couldn't have also stopped by his room to drop off a love letter. This whole thing has become way too complicated.</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<p>“Maybe I wrote the letter,” Yeonho suggests, hopelessly.</p>
<p>“Did you?” Yongseung looks up briefly from his planner to humor Yeonho.</p>
<p>“No... but that's also what <em> they </em> all said today.” Yeonho sighs, rolling onto his side. “I'm just as suspicious.” With his foot, Yeonho nudges Yongseung, who's seated at the foot of Yeonho's bed. “Don't you think?”</p>
<p>Without looking up from his planner, Yongseung raises his eyebrows and nods. Another groan from his Gemini twin makes Yongseung lower his planner and look at Yeonho. “If no one else comes forward, I'll claim ownership. Would that make you feel better?”</p>
<p>“But did you actually write it?”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“Okay, sus.” Yeonho says jokingly, as he silently scolds himself for the initial hope in his voice when he had asked the question. “If it were actually you, you would've wrote it down in your planner.”</p>
<p>“Yep, it says right here. 3 am: deliver Yeonho a love letter that causes him to spiral for a whole day,” Yongseung jokes.</p>
<p>“Solid evidence,” Yeonho smiles at the thought that it could be so simple. He closes his eyes and decides to relax for the first time today.</p>
<p>After a few minutes of Yeonho listening to the ASMR effect from Yongseung's pencil scraping against his planner, Yongseung speaks up. “It's time for bed soon.”</p>
<p>Those words set Yeonho off into imagining the next day. What if he falls asleep and wakes up to another letter on his pillow? What if no one comes forward then either? What if there's a random member of the group in love with him and he's just supposed to act normal around everyone? How could he act normal? “No, that's it.” Yeonho lifts his feet off his bed and onto the floor, sitting up. “I'm ending this.”</p>
<p>“What're you—?”</p>
<p>“Everyone!” Yeonho calls out into the home as he enters the living room, causing members to start to gather. “One of you wrote this.” He takes the letter out of his pocket and holds it up.</p>
<p>“Didn't we already do this?” Gyehyeon asks.</p>
<p>Yeonho points at Gyehyeon. “Yes. Sus.”</p>
<p>“How is that sus?”</p>
<p>“Because you're afraid to be questioned twice, aren't you?”</p>
<p>“I think we're afraid that this might go all night. It's already late.” Minchan yawns, reminding Yeonho about his less than ideal rest from last night, and causing him to hesitate for a moment.</p>
<p>“Why don't you do this some other time, Yeonho-ya?” Dongheon suggests.</p>
<p>“No... you both are suspicious.” Yeonho points an accusing finger at Minchan. “I let you off the hook too easily. You could've definitely stopped by my room at any point in the night. You had a bunch of time alone with no witnesses. And you,” Yeonho turns to Dongheon, “you and your dumb door, what's even up with that? I mean, my room's door was ajar too, but you <em> never </em> leave yours open.”</p>
<p>“I didn't notice his door being open,” Kangmin adds.</p>
<p>“That's 'cause you were preoccupied, rotting your brain with TV. And possibly dropping off love letters.”</p>
<p>Hoyoung crosses his arms. “Am I next, or—?”</p>
<p>“Oh, you're like, the <em> most </em> suspicious. You're alibi is <em> me </em> and I was unconscious in the same room as you where the crime took place.”</p>
<p>“What about Yongseung, then?” Dongheon asks.</p>
<p>“He said he didn't do it,” Yeonho plainly states.</p>
<p>“Well, that doesn't seem fair.” Hoyoung shakes his head.</p>
<p>“So is anyone gonna come forward and admit to writing this?” Yeonho, realizing he truly hasn't solved any part of this mystery, finds himself relying on this one moment, without even an inkling for which member did this. He's in the exact same place where he was this morning. Confused, wishing that the others will solve this for him, and desperate to find out who did it and end this madness. But his hopes only bring disappointment as the other members stay silent once again. “Come on, guys. It has to be one of you. Fess up!”</p>
<p>In a moment, Yongseung's expression slowly changes from baffled to grim. “Now, wait a minute.” Yongseung carefully looks around the room. “Are we sure it had to have been one of us? I'd hate to introduce the idea, but... could someone else have...” Following those words is a worrying silence amongst everyone.</p>
<p>“A fan...?” Kangmin furrows his brow.</p>
<p>The idea that a fan could have broken into their home and placed the letter beside him while he was unconscious and vulnerable strikes terror into Yeonho. They've had a few fans go too far before, but this would truly be the most terrifying encounter yet.</p>
<p>Upon seeing what must've been a horrible expression come from Yeonho after he had that thought, Dongheon speaks up to try to reason, “Hold on, if it was a fan, how come the letter said 'yesterday'? There was no fan meet yesterday, no one else could have seen you.”</p>
<p>“But there was a fan meet the day before. Maybe they wrote the letter after that event.” Hoyoung suggests.</p>
<p>“And if they wrote and delivered the letter before midnight last night, the 'yesterday' still would've been valid,” Minchan adds with a solemn nod before the room becomes silent again</p>
<p>It feels like an eternity goes by as everyone gathers their thoughts at this possibility. What if someone was sneaking around their dorm, hiding just out of sight? Yeonho finds himself unable to speak as his home starts feeling unsafe.</p>
<p>“Check the CCTV. Tell security.” Gyehyeon breaks the silence, sounding calm despite the spike in everyone's anxiety. “We have to let them know that someone might've gotten in.”</p>
<p>“The door wasn't broken into, though. It was just a possibility—”</p>
<p>“Doesn't matter,” Gyehyeon cuts Yongseung off. “We can't risk it.”</p>
<p>“If...” Yeonho starts, holding the letter in front of him, “If one of us wrote this letter, you have to say so now. If no one here really wrote it, then...” Yeonho can feel an intensity coming off of every member. He feels their want for someone to come forward just as much as he does. A moment goes by where everyone feels frozen in time.</p>
<p>Right before Yeonho opens his mouth to speak again, Dongheon grabs the letter from his hand.</p>
<p>Expecting an explanation, all of the members silently look at Dongheon to find him awkwardly shifting his weight on his feet and holding the letter close to his side so as to not draw attention to it. “Don't tell security.”</p>
<p>Confusion hits in place of what should have been relief. “<em>It was you?” </em> Yeonho exclaims, pointing a finger at the author of the letter that has been giving him so much trouble ever since he woke up today. His mouth stays open in shock and his eyes lose focus as his mind races. Yeonho's leader, who he doesn't have any feelings for, wrote him this letter? Why would he write him a love letter? Did he expect him to return his feelings? How long will this make things awkward between them? For their whole career together even?</p>
<p>“Wait a second—!” Dongheon says, reflecting the panic in Yeonho's eyes. He clears his throat before slowly continuing. “I... wrote the letter, but...” Dongheon's eyes shyly look over everyone before settling at the ground before his feet. “I didn't write it for you.”</p>
<p>“But it was on my pillow!” Yeonho tries to reason.</p>
<p>“It must've fell,” Dongheon mumbles, barely audible.</p>
<p>“What'd it do, fall from the ceiling—?” Kangmin starts to say, but cuts himself off once he along with everyone else remembers, seemingly simultaneously, that Yeonho sleeps on a bottom bunk.</p>
<p>All eyes slowly turn towards Hoyoung, who is standing very still, covering his red face with a sleeved hand. His eyes, wide with shock, are glued to Dongheon, who refuses to return the look, but cannot hide his similarly blushed face.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Wrote this back in October and decided it was Finally Time to edit and post.</p>
<p>How was that for immediate foreshadow? “Hyung, you drop something?” Yes. End of story, mystery solved.</p>
<p>Sorry it’s not an actual Yeonho x member fic. But this fic does every Yeonho ship at once if you believed hard enough.</p>
<p>Also I think I messed up. I was under the impression that Hoyoung had the top bunk, but I think he might actually sleep on the bottom irl. Oops, major. I can’t fix it, it's crucial to the story now.</p>
<p>Next is a bonus chapter from Dongheon’s point of view.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Author</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter explores Dongheon's perspective during the first chapter with a bit extra.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Hyung.”</p>
<p>Hearing someone enter his room, Dongheon opens his eyes, not realizing he had fallen asleep. He was awake late last night, waiting for all the members to finally go to bed so he could sneak into Hoyoung's bedroom and leave him his written love confession. Remembering this, Dongheon's heartbeat speeds up, especially since realizing the boy he wrote the letter for just entered his room after he must've woken up and read it moments ago.</p>
<p>Hoyoung flicks on the light in Dongheon's room and waits at the doorway, watching him stir awake. The sudden bright light surprises and blinds Dongheon temporarily as he comes to realize it must be morning already. The window in his room would've allowed the morning sunlight to enter if it weren't for being blocked by his closed blinds, as well as a few rogue articles of clothes draped on top of them, matching the rest of his messy, clothes-ridden room.</p>
<p>While rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he briefly considers that he should've cleaned up his room a bit before this moment. After reading his confession, the naturally neat and tidy Hoyoung has to immediately step into his wreck of a room to confront him, which must not leave the best impression, Dongheon imagines. If he knew earlier that he was going to confess, he definitely would have cleaned up yesterday. He also would've cleaned up last night while he was waiting for the other members to go to bed, but he couldn’t risk being seen or heard. He had to pretend to be asleep because he left his door open so he could easily check for the coast to be clear before sneaking out. </p>
<p>Even though he thought it through that far, last night was a horrible night to try to leave a love letter on his crush's pillow. Long after he listened for all of the other members to go to bed, he saw a dull glowing light through the crack of his door and would repeatedly hear the irregular clicks of a mouse accompanied by the occasional sounds of fast typing on a keyboard. Dongheon guessed it was Minchan, up late editing their DIY music video. While waiting for him to go to bed, Dongheon accidentally fell asleep, only to wake up to the sound of another member's careful footsteps entering the living room. To Dongheon's misfortune, he could once again see light emitting through the door crack and hear subtle sounds from what he assumed to be their television. Because he was pretending to be asleep, he didn’t look to see which member it was as they walked by his room, but it couldn't have been Hoyoung or Yeonho, since their room is on the other side of their dorm. He waited some time after that member went to bed to make sure that they had fallen asleep so he could finally make his way over to Hoyoung's room without anyone's knowledge, but by that time it was really late at night... or really early in the morning.</p>
<p>Dongheon tries to shake off how tired he is and focuses his eyes on Hoyoung, whose returned gaze starts making him feel more awake immediately. “Hyung, it's morning, get up.” Hoyoung is leaning on the door frame with the most neutral expression. Dongheon wonders if Hoyoung's unchanged demeanor towards him is because he hadn't read his letter? Or maybe he did read it and isn't impressed at all? Did he just make things unbelievably awkward between them? Oh god, why did he write that letter in the first place?</p>
<p>As these thoughts rush through Dongheon's head, Hoyoung leaves his room, disappearing into the rest of the dorm. Part of Dongheon wants to curl up and catch up on his sleep, but the other half feels too anxious to sit still. He gets up to start his day, hoping that the letter was still a good idea and that he didn't just ruin everything.</p>
<p>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Who wrote this?”</p>
<p>Dongheon is present in the living room where Yeonho is speaking out to all of the other members. He can tell Yeonho seems a bit shocked, but honestly Dongheon has his own problems right now. His crush isn't acting any different even after reading his confession. To not even be acknowledged is nearly causing Dongheon physical pain.</p>
<p>“What is it?” Dongheon hears Kangmin ask.</p>
<p>Looking over, Dongheon sees Yeonho holding out a white envelope for the group to see. “One of you left this letter on my pillow last night. It's not funny.”</p>
<p>For a brief second, Dongheon is blissfully ignorant. Then while looking at what Yeonho is holding in his hand, he comes to realize what is happening. Somehow, Yeonho got his letter instead. Dongheon freezes as he feels his whole body tense up at this horrible outcome.</p>
<p>“What, did you get hate mail or something?” Gyehyeon raises his eyebrows. “That's pretty funny.”</p>
<p>“No, it's the opposite.” Yeonho clarifies, “Someone left a sort of love letter. Who did it?”</p>
<p>The group pauses, waiting for someone to come forward. Every part of Dongheon keeps him from speaking up. It's beyond embarrassing to know that one of the younger members read his private confession of his tender feelings towards Hoyoung. There is absolutely no way he's going to admit to that letter being his. He does <i>not</i> want the whole group to know that he likes Hoyoung—he barely even wants Hoyoung to know, as he reconsiders everything in this moment. He shouldn't have written that letter.</p>
<p>All around him are his visibly surprised group members. They remain silent for quite some time as they look around at each other, waiting for the author of the letter to come forward. Dongheon tries to decide what to do. The best plan he can come up with is to just pretend this never happened and wait for the memory of the letter to disappear from everyones’ minds.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I'm telling you I didn't write that horrible letter. If I had to write something that cringey, I'd die on the spot before it ever reached its destination.”</p>
<p>Hoyoung’s words hit Dongheon so hard he stops breathing for a moment. He confessed his love by converting his honest feelings into the written word and Hoyoung calls it 'cringey'. “Is it really that bad?” Desperately looking for validation, Dongheon turns to Yeonho, who is seated next to him in the kitchen.</p>
<p>“I mean... It's better if you don't see it.” Yeonho shakes his head. “Hoyoung's writing is terrible.”</p>
<p>“Wha—I didn't write it!” Hoyoung throws his soapy hands up in frustration, wet from washing dishes directly after everyone ate dinner together.</p>
<p>Dongheon forces an awkward smile at their banter. The fact that Hoyoung is getting blamed for something that is entirely Dongheon's fault, combined with a tinge of jealousy from Yeonho believing, albeit half-jokingly, that Hoyoung wrote him a love letter, makes Dongheon decide to defend him. “I'd believe Hoyoung if he tells you he didn't do it,” Dongheon advises Yeonho. “It’s impossible for him to lie with a straight face. He has zero acting talent!” Although this is intended to be a dig, Dongheon finds this fact about Hoyoung to be incredibly endearing, but he keeps this thought to himself.</p>
<p>“<i>Thank you.</i>” Hoyoung adds, “But I still want you to help me with these.”</p>
<p>Dongheon clicks his tongue, but gets up to dry the dishes that Hoyoung washes. “OK, let's get it.” He hopes that the conversation ends there, but he is aware that Yeonho has been spending his time going around and questioning each member the entire day. Wishing that Yeonho forgets to ask him anything at all, he remains quieter than usual. The feeling of Hoyoung's shoulder touching his own as they stand side by side at the sink brings him some comfort.</p>
<p>“Dongheon hyung,” Yeonho starts after some time, catching Dongheon off guard, “can I get some advice?”</p>
<p>“I don’t think he’s qualified,” Hoyoung laughs.</p>
<p>Dongheon tries to remember why he likes Hoyoung in the first place as he playfully pushes the chuckling man away. He can't help the smile that forms on his own face just listening to Hoyoung's laugh. Every second he spends with Hoyoung makes him want to confess to him more. Maybe in the future, after everyone has forgotten about this.</p>
<p>“What should I do? I can’t just let this go and <i>wait</i> for someone to come forward—if that ever even happens! Who would've done this? Do you know?” Yeonho asks.</p>
<p>“It was probably Dongheon,” Hoyoung interjects. “He's definitely capable of writing cringe to that extent.”</p>
<p>Dongheon can feel Hoyoung's gaze on him and can vividly imagine the mischievous smirk that's definitely planted on his face. The fact that Hoyoung is correctly accusing him as playful banter feels like a sick joke. <i>As if</i> Dongheon would write a love letter to Yeonho. He hopes that Hoyoung is just kidding and doesn't really believe that Dongheon is capable of thinking of Yeonho in that way. Although, if Hoyoung really figured out that Dongheon wrote the letter, it would sure seem like it. </p>
<p>Pushing that thought down and trying not to gain any suspicion, Dongheon rolls his eyes at Hoyoung's statement and sighs. “I don't know who did it, Yeonho-ya...” Dongheon lies. He feels a little bad about it, but he did not sign up for this situation. That letter was in <i>no way</i> meant to fall into Yeonho's hands. “Where did you say you found the letter?” His curiosity causes him to ask, even though he knows it would be smarter to stay silent.</p>
<p>Dongheon remembers where he left it. After entering their room last night, he set the envelope with his confession sealed inside right next to his crush on his pillow. This went unnoticed as planned, as Hoyoung was fast asleep, laying on his side with an arm draped over his pillow. Taking a moment, he then tried imagining how Hoyoung would react upon reading his letter. He tried to imagine the look on his face, but struggled. Would he be surprised? Would he smile? Would he <i>blush</i>? Whatever the reaction, he would probably look just as cute as always, even as he slept.</p>
<p>Even though he knew he should have left their room as soon as possible, Dongheon couldn’t help but take a moment to admire Hoyoung. His hair was a bit longer now, his overgrown bangs resting on his closed eyelids. For a few seconds, Dongheon's gaze lingered on Hoyoung's slightly parted lips, causing him to briefly consider waking him up right then and there to have his feelings be quickly returned so that he could kiss them as soon as possible. Feeling slightly embarrassed having this thought, Dongheon shifted his gaze over to Hoyoung's extended arm that was fully removed from the covers. Maybe it was because of the late hour and lack of sleep, but Dongheon grabbed the sheets and pulled them up to cover more of Hoyoung, which caused him to start to sturr. Dongheon internally scolded himself for doing something he's seen so many times in dramas and putting himself at risk of being caught just when his mission was complete. Not wanting to wait around in case Hoyoung woke up as he turned over, Dongheon left the scene as quickly and quietly as possible.</p>
<p>“Right on the edge of my pillow.” Yeonho answers Dongheon's question, pulling him out of his memory from last night.</p>
<p>It must've fallen, Dongheon thinks. He scolds himself for a second time about adjusting Hoyoung's covers. If that act had caused Hoyoung to move enough that he accidentally pushed the letter off his pillow, resulting in it dropping down to the lower bunk, he could never forgive himself.</p>
<p>“Why was your door open, by the way?” Yeonho asks.</p>
<p>“My door? Was it open last night?” Dongheon didn't realize anyone would really notice such a thing. His door was only open a sliver so he could check for the other members.</p>
<p>“Yeah?”</p>
<p>Dongheon dries a dish slowly as he considers his options and decides to play dumb. “I can't remember leaving it open.” He places the dried dish in the cupboard it belongs to.</p>
<p>Yeonho continues asking about last night and seems ultimately dissatisfied with Dongheon's untruthful answers, but confessing to writing this letter is the last thing he would ever do.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“So is anyone gonna come forward and admit to writing this? Come on, guys. It has to be one of you. Fess up!”</p>
<p>Dongheon will absolutely <i>not</i> ‘fess up’. Yeonho is confronting the group as a whole again, looking like he means business this time, but Dongheon means business too. He'll just wait this 'meeting' out until Yeonho gives up and they all go to bed. There's no way on <i>Earth</i> Yeonho will get him to essentially confess to Hoyoung in front of everyone.</p>
<p>Glancing over at Hoyoung now, Dongheon notices him looking fed up with this scenario as well. He has politely turned his attention to Yeonho, but from his raised eyebrows, it's clear Hoyoung thinks this meeting is unnecessary. Like he's seen many times before, Hoyoung is standing with his left hand holding the middle of his right forearm, a stance that Dongheon finds endearing for no reason other than it's something that Hoyoung does.</p>
<p>“Now, wait a minute,” Yongseung says, bringing Dongheon's attention back to the group. “Are we sure it had to have been one of us? I'd hate to introduce the idea, but... could someone else have...” Following those words is a worrying silence amongst the other members.</p>
<p>“A fan...?” Kangmin furrows his brow.</p>
<p>Dongheon tenses up as the other members silently consider the idea that a fan could have broken into their home and placed the love letter on Yeonho's pillow. Yeonho’s expression is so grim that Dongheon’s mouth opens to try to debunk that possibility, in hopes that it’ll lighten the group’s worries. “Hold on, if it was a fan, how come the letter said 'yesterday'? There was no fan meet yesterday, no one else could have seen you.” Dongheon internally winces as he realizes Yeonho technically didn’t show him the letter today. He had only let a few other members read it, and yet Dongheon has just referenced its word choice, which he is supposed to be entirely unaware of. He holds his breath and waits for renewed suspicion to be aimed at him, but luckily Yeonho doesn’t notice the mistake.</p>
<p>“But there was a fan meet the day before. Maybe they wrote the letter after that event.” Hoyoung suggests.</p>
<p>“And if they wrote and delivered the letter before midnight last night, the 'yesterday' still would've been valid,” Minchan adds with a solemn nod before the room becomes silent again.</p>
<p>Not knowing how to further debunk this theory without outing himself as the author, Dongheon remains silent with a distressed look on his face that blends in with the others, only for a very different reason. The other members are clearly experiencing a new kind of anxiety and it's all his fault.</p>
<p>“Check the CCTV. Tell security.” Gyehyeon breaks the silence that formed due to everyone's fear. “We have to let them know that someone might've gotten in.”</p>
<p>“The door wasn't broken into, though. It was just a possibility—”</p>
<p>“Doesn't matter,” Gyehyeon cuts Yongseung off. “We can't risk it.”</p>
<p>Dongheon dares to look up at Hoyoung for a second and feels his heart sink at the sight of him shifting uncomfortably on his feet with a beyond troubled expression and what Dongheon reads as true fear in his eyes. After all, Hoyoung was sleeping in the same room as Yeonho last night. Of course the thought of their safety being threatened disturbed him equally as much.</p>
<p>“If...” Yeonho starts, holding the letter in front of him, “If one of us wrote this letter, you have to say so now. If no one here really wrote it, then...” Dongheon stares at the floor in front of him, his whole body tense and his heart pounding as he tries to consider his options. However, in the moment all he is able to feel is guilt for causing this much distress to the younger members. There isn't anything else he can think of doing besides just... coming clean.</p>
<p>Right before Yeonho can open his mouth to speak again, Dongheon grabs the letter from his hand.</p>
<p>Expecting an explanation, all of the members silently look at Dongheon to find him awkwardly shifting his weight on his feet and holding the letter close to his side so as to not draw attention to it. “Don't tell security.”</p>
<p>“<i>It was you?</i>” Yeonho exclaims, pointing a finger at Dongheon, who is currently dealing with one of the worst cases of embarrassment he has ever had to experience. Dongheon looks up at Yeonho, whose mouth is agape, and realizes that he thinks Dongheon wrote the letter for him.</p>
<p>“Wait a second—!” Dongheon says in a panicked voice. He clears his throat before slowly continuing. “I... wrote the letter, but...” Dongheon's eyes shyly look over everyone before settling at the ground before his feet. “I didn't write it for you.”</p>
<p>“But it was on my pillow!” Yeonho tries to reason.</p>
<p>“It must've fell,” Dongheon mumbles, barely audible.</p>
<p>“What'd it do, fall from the ceiling—?” Kangmin starts to say, but cuts himself off once he along with everyone else remembers, seemingly simultaneously, that Yeonho sleeps on a bottom bunk.</p>
<p>At this moment, the other members are exceptionally quiet for once as they all come to the conclusion that Dongheon, in fact, wrote a love letter to Hoyoung. He can feel everyone's eyes on him as his face becomes hot.</p>
<p>Regret. He's feeling so much regret. Why did he have to go and write that letter? He wonders this, pointlessly, as he can remember exactly why he wrote it every time he sees Hoyoung’s face. Looking up at him now and seeing this particular expression that he’s wearing, Dongheon feels like he has to make a tremendous effort to hold himself together or else he might melt into a big pile of pure infatuation. He wrote that letter because of his unbearably strong feelings for Hoyoung. He wrote it in hopes that he feels the same way. He wrote it because the risk of never letting him know was the scariest thing to him last night. He wrote it because he felt he finally reached his breaking point yesterday.</p>
<p>The whole group had some time off starting yesterday and they all made the most of it, having fun and enjoying themselves. However, Dongheon couldn't help but add in some extra dance practice at the end of the day. He was practicing for a song he wasn't planning on making a cover video for, but just something to hone his skills. It was later in the evening and he assumed the other members had gone home to relax by then. It took Dongheon by surprise when Hoyoung walked into the practice room in the middle of the song and politely stood out of the way, watching over him.</p>
<p>Although he could see him in the mirror, Dongheon continued to dance as usual, not letting Hoyoung's arrival distract him. In fact, it might've been causing him to dance with extra effort, in order to show off to the younger member and hopefully inspire him to work just as hard. By the end of the song, he had already been practicing for quite some time and felt exhausted at the extra expended energy during that last go. Pleased by Hoyoung's applause at his performance, he failed at trying to hide his smile as he walked over to where he kept his bag.</p>
<p>“Hyung, nice job. Looks really cool.” Hoyoung gave Dongheon a thumbs up while wearing his usual cheeky grin, dimple prominent.</p>
<p>Dongheon sat down on the ground next to his bag and took out a water bottle. “Thanks.”</p>
<p>While he was taking a long drink, Hoyoung came over and sat down next to him. “Did you see what Yeonho airdropped to me today?”</p>
<p>Dongheon wiped his mouth with his tank and scooted closer to Hoyoung to look at his phone. They spent some time sitting together like this, Hoyoung sharing memes that Dongheon missed out on earlier and Dongheon telling Hoyoung about his practice that day. The details of this conversation are lost in Dongheon’s memories, though. At the time, he was listening and participating in the conversation, but none of it was recorded into his long term memory. Now, all he can remember clearly are the fine details of Hoyoung’s lips as he talked, smiled, and laughed with Dongheon that day. Even during that moment, they were almost all Dongheon could think about. It took everything he had to not just straight up ask Hoyoung out of nowhere if he could kiss him, and it became even more unbearable as time went on.</p>
<p>To try to shake off the feeling, Dongheon found an excuse to move away from Hoyoung. “Hey, before I forget, would you take a photo of me for Twitter?” He handed Hoyoung his phone and stood up, walking away from him enough so that his full body would be in frame.</p>
<p>“Oh god, is this another boyfriend photo?” Hoyoung complained, albeit smiling.</p>
<p>“Yep!” Dongheon answered, posing ridiculously, all the while putting as much charm into his expression as possible. His trick was to pretend he's in love with the camera, which he found was easier to pull off when Hoyoung was the one behind said camera. Dongheon tried to muster up enough aegyo to make Hoyoung complain again, as that was his goal. In the back of his mind, he worried that maybe somehow Hoyoung would be able to tell his feelings for him just by sensing the genuineness behind his flirty expressions, but Dongheon knew that confessing would never be as easy as having his crush read his mind, unfortunately.</p>
<p>Come to think of it, he was never even sure if confessing was something he would want to do. Ever since Dongheon realized how he felt about Hoyoung, he wanted his feelings to be returned, of course. However, that wish was not worth the risk of losing his companionship if doing so would make things awkward between them. Besides, just being near Hoyoung as a close friend was entirely pleasant in and of itself.</p>
<p>After a moment of thinking while continuing to pose, Dongheon noticed that Hoyoung’s eyes were no longer on his phone, but he was looking past the screen directly at Dongheon with a soft expression. Starting to feel a bit self-conscious, Dongheon tried thinking of some other entertaining poses he could do. Quickly, he started looking around for a prop that he could pose with perhaps, but before he settled on anything, he heard a chuckle from Hoyoung.</p>
<p>“Your boyfriend photos are really something else.” Hoyoung had already started to go through these new photos, looking very amused. “I understand why VERRERs can’t get enough of them. These poses are hilarious, it’s great.”</p>
<p>“You’d make a great boyfriend too.”</p>
<p>“What?” Hoyoung’s wide eyes on Dongheon made him realize what he just said.</p>
<p>“I mean—I said you make great boyfriend photos too.” Dongheon was starting to lose it. He didn’t think he meant to say that. Was his correction even something more normal to say than what had originally slipped passed his lips unfiltered? “You know, because your boyfriend photos always get a lot of likes...” Smiling awkwardly, he silently worried that he was actually reaching his limit with how long he could keep his feelings a secret.</p>
<p>“But yours are legendary. You couldn’t look more ridiculous,” Hoyoung teased him, but while smiling sweetly with a fond look in his eyes as he went through what Dongheon assumes is the rest of his phone’s photo album since they didn’t take that many new photos. If they made him so happy, Dongheon would love to take as many boyfriend photos as Hoyoung wanted, just for him. Suddenly, Dongheon felt his face start to become warm at the implication. <i>Boyfriend</i> photos. The fantasy that Dongheon could be Hoyoung’s boyfriend was tough to shake from his mind. In fact, he found himself completely unable to stop thinking about it at all.</p>
<p>The urge to confess was suddenly welling up inside Dongheon. He wanted to let it out immediately, but he first tried to consider the consequences, searching his mind for any reason not to do this. The first and most probable threat was obviously Hoyoung rejecting him. On the bright side, the best outcome of that worst case scenario would be if he still remained as his friend. Dongheon could absolutely live with this, as every second with Hoyoung was a delight. The closeness that he had with the younger member was already beyond precious to him. However, what if his confession would embarrass Hoyoung and make things awkward between them? He didn’t want this to ruin their already treasured relationship. It would break his heart to see Hoyoung be uncomfortable with him. </p>
<p>Dongheon anxiously bit his lip as he looked down at Hoyoung who was sitting in front of him, eyes still glued to the phone. His anxiety started to fade as he noticed the affection in Hoyoung’s eyes, which almost made Dongheon jealous of his own selcas. From that fondness in Hoyoung’s expression, Dongheon wondered if it were possible that he wasn’t alone in feeling this way. Without trying to stop the butterflies from gathering in his stomach, he imagined Hoyoung returning his feelings. He imagined being able to call him his boyfriend. He imagined things that made his face unnecessarily more red.</p>
<p>Dongheon had decided, he was absolutely going to tell Hoyoung how he felt, right there and right then. He tried waiting for his heartbeat to calm down, not wanting to make Hoyoung more uncomfortable in case he noticed how on edge he was during this imminent exchange. Feeling like it was finally the right moment, Dongheon opened his mouth to speak, but before any words could come out, the door of the practice room opened.</p>
<p>“Hyung, ready?”</p>
<p>“Yeah.” Hoyoung stood up and turned to Dongheon. “I have to go walk Kangmini back to the dorm.” He held out Dongheon’s phone to return it. “Here, hyung. VERRERs are gonna love these.”</p>
<p>Dongheon took his phone back, still in a daze from his thoughts. He really almost confessed just then and the speed of his heartbeat was at a record high from being so close to finally saying it and changing everything.</p>
<p>“Dongheon hyung, are you coming with us?” Kangmin asked from the doorway.</p>
<p>“No, go without me. I’m just finishing up here.” </p>
<p>“See you at home soon?” Hoyoung asked.</p>
<p>Dongheon nodded, trying to hide his disappointment. As it fully sunk in that he missed his chance, Hoyoung was heading out to return home, leaving Dongheon standing alone in the practice room. He wanted nothing more than to run after him and let it all out, but there was no way in serious hell that he’d do such a thing with the youngest present. He realized he could do nothing but hold his feelings in until tomorrow morning, which seemed much too far away. Actually, he felt too anxious to wait at all, as it felt like his feelings were going to burst out of him if he didn’t confront them soon. That being said, what if he wouldn’t be able to get any alone time with Hoyoung tomorrow? He wondered how long he would have to wait then and if he could even handle it.</p>
<p>Shutting off the lights to the empty practice room, he had already decided how he would confess. He had to get his feelings down on paper so they would stop making him dizzy. Dongheon had to write Hoyoung a love letter. Running home, he began the first draft in his head.</p>
<p>And now in the present moment, the final draft that’s currently in his trembling hand is causing him tremendous stress as all of his housemates stare at him in shock. Dongheon finds himself unable to say anything, not even knowing what he could say to fix this.</p>
<p>“Let’s go for ice cream,” Minchan speaks up, “Right now.”</p>
<p>Kangmin, still looking dumbstruck from the situation, opens his mouth as if to argue, but Minchan adds, “I’ll pay.” He gestures to coax the younger members to the front door. “Come on, let’s go.”</p>
<p>Dongheon mouths a ‘thank you’ to Minchan for saving him from having to confess to Hoyoung in front of everyone. He watches as the rest of VERIVERY head through the door and leave just Dongheon and Hoyoung alone.</p>
<p>Dongheon really doesn’t know how Hoyoung is handling all of this at the moment. On the bright side, Hoyoung is smiling, albeit awkwardly. However, he’s also avoiding his eyes and blushing deeply, looking like he wants to say something, but can’t. The situation must be too embarrassing for the cringe-intolerant Hoyoung to handle, but it couldn’t be worse than what Dongheon is currently feeling.</p>
<p>“I—I don’t like Yeonho. I mean, I like him as a friend—or like a coworker...”</p>
<p>“I can see that, hyung…” Hoyoung nods and presses his lips together.</p>
<p>Dongheon stops to think about if this is really something he should do, but ends up deciding it’s definitely too late to back out. He slowly lifts the letter up and holds it out in front of Hoyoung. “This is for you…”</p>
<p>Hoyoung takes the letter with two hands and mutters what sounds like a thanks. Dongheon doesn’t know what he expected, but Hoyoung has already read the letter, so he isn’t surprised that he just holds it in his hand without looking at it, or at Dongheon either for that matter.</p>
<p>Dongheon thinks of something to say to try to break the awkward silence, but can’t. It might be only a few seconds going by, but this interaction is absolutely slow and painful. While Dongheon considers just running away and hiding, Hoyoung speaks up in a soft voice, “Why didn’t you handwrite it? The letter was typed out, but you have really pretty handwriting, hyung.”</p>
<p>Even though Hoyoung is shyly looking at him now, he hesitates and finds himself too afraid to look back. “To be honest…” Dongheon starts, “I couldn’t stop my hand from trembling when I wrote… and I wanted it to be perfect…” He shakes his head and laughs awkwardly, “I wasn’t thinking straight, I was kind of in a rush to get it down on paper.”</p>
<p>Dongheon looks up to see Hoyoung looking at the floor in front of him, wearing a wide grin. “Um…” Not wanting to go into another long awkward silence, Dongheon asks what he has been wondering all of today, “… What would you have said? If you woke up with that on your pillow?” He weakly gestures to the letter in Hoyoung’s right hand.</p>
<p>Hoyoung raises his eyebrows and shakes his head. “I wouldn't have shown anybody, for starters! Because that letter is way too embarrassing,” He laughs. “But I wouldn't have needed to. I'd have known who it was from,” he quietly adds with a subtle nod. From Hoyoung’s slow blinking, Dongheon assumes he has started to calm down, but Dongheon can’t say the same for himself.</p>
<p>“How?”</p>
<p>“Well,” Hoyoung looks around the room aimlessly, seemingly trying to hold back his smile. “More like, I’d have known who I <i>hoped</i> it was from.”</p>
<p>“Huh?” Dongheon starts to feel dizzy, his brain lagging, unable to think about what the other just said. He almost jumps when his and Hoyoung’s eyes finally meet.</p>
<p>“I like you, hyung,” Hoyoung says. “I thought maybe you liked me too.”</p>
<p>As Hoyoung spelled it out for him, Dongheon’s brain still took a second to really comprehend the confession. “I do—! I do like you too!”</p>
<p>“Well, I know that now,” Hoyoung briefly lifts the letter for Dongheon to see, chuckling.</p>
<p>Now Dongheon can’t stop smiling back at Hoyoung. Despite the day going horribly wrong, it led to one of the most euphoric moments Dongheon has ever experienced. He laughs, finally feeling free from all the tension that was built up. As he looks at Hoyoung’s face, he thinks writing that letter turned out to be worth the several layers of embarrassment he went through to get here.</p>
<p>“‘I’ve never wanted to kiss you more than I did yesterday,’” Hoyoung recites this line of his letter, surprising Dongheon. “... Isn’t it weird that we were both thinking the same thing?”</p>
<p>Dongheon looks at Hoyoung with wide eyes, shocked at what he had just said, but the younger member has quickly covered his face with the letter. Dongheon can still see his ears, as red as can be, which must reflect the similarly deeply blushed color that Dongheon feels burning on his face.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>thanks for lookin' :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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